Further Education in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Further Education in UK - Essay Example Some FECs are funded directly; others receive money indirectly through a franchise agreement with a higher education institution, or as part of a consortium. Contact details and links to further information on FECs providing HE courses are available through the HERO web-site. The following list gives the 135 FECs that we are funding directly I am proud that my first White Paper as Secretary of State should be on the issue of education for our 14 to 19 year old.(http://195.194.167.100/unicoll/FE/). The reforms set out for further education are very much important. They are vital to UK economy equipping young people with the skills employers' need and the ability to go on learning throughout their lives. Reforms are vital for social justice giving us the chance to give break through the historic link between social back ground, educational achievement and life chances that have determined UK citizens as a nation. And most of all these are vital to each and every individual young person, whatever the needs of the young people or whatever they want to be. Young teenagers are tomorrow's leaders, entrepreneurs, parent and community servants, so we should take a special care for the children in the age group of 14 to 19; it is the age period when one needs guidance and help for selecting one's career. Build a system of 14 to 19 education that will do just that. A system that we can be proud of. And one that gives every young person the opportunities they need and deserve. Every child and every teenager has equal worth. We owe it to them to give them the chance to show what they can do, to make the most of their talents, to reach their potential. And the key to doing that is to design a system around them based on high standards, on choice and on meeting individuals' needs and aspirations. To deliver that system will take determination. It will take commitment. It will take the hard work of teachers, lecturers, other education professionals, employers, parents and all who work in or with our schools and colleges. It will require breaking down the artificial barriers between academic and vocational education. It will mean building on all that is good in our system and reforming what is not working. Building from the excellent work of Sir Mike Tomlinson and his Working Group on 14-19 Reform and from the work of the successful school and college partnerships we are already seeing in local communities. It charts a 10-year reform programme and the milestone s needed to achieve it. But more than those details and those milestones, it sets out a vision of what we want for children and teenagers what we want them to learn, the skills we want them to acquire, but above all the values we want them to have. The purpose of the education system is to help each and every individual reach their potential. (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/14-19educationandskills /pdfs/14-19WhitePaper.pdf) School pupils in this age group and (probably) sixth form

Marketing case study of Ferrero Company Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing of Ferrero Company - Case Study Example To successfully penetrate the market Ferrero maintains a limited unique number of products manufactured and marketed at the highest quality possible. The company also seeks to understand the market properly by carrying out extensive test marketing of its products to avoid embarrassing marketing failures (Australian Trade Commission, 2012). Question One Ferrero Australian opened an online boutique that sells premium chocolate gifts packed in unique keep sake gift boxes. The online boutique was actualized due to consistent demands for Ferrero chocolate gift packs by customers for their chocolate loving friends and family. The gifts are customized, elegantly packed and contain a card for personalized messages (Ferrero Boutique, 2012). Ferrero decision to open an online boutique was a well thought marketing strategy in line with the changing consumer habits in Australia. The internet has become an integral and essential feature of the day-to-day social and business lives of billions of p eople around the globe and the internet economy is growing strong each day (Bughin et al., 2011). Ferrero Australia decision enabled many of its customers to have their desired products with convenience and efficiency as the internet enables customers to save time spent on shopping for gifts. Online stores makes it possible for consumers to make quicker decisions and shop as consumers can find time to perform ten searches online but only two searches offline for each purchase, with internet searches saving more time than physical directories (Chen, Jeon & Kim 2010). This boosts productivity for consumers, suppliers and manufacturers and translates into more profits. Through its online boutique store Ferrero customers in Australia are able to choose their preferred gifts with ease and the website offers price transparency, which is essential in developing customer trust and loyalty. This is because the online boutique service offers customers a reliable and stable source of gifts all year round with more consistency, which is a crucial marketing strategy to maintain customers. Using the internet to sell its products also offers the company the opportunity to advertise its high quality products all over the world. Their website helps to raise product awareness to a much more diverse customer base that spurs its sales volume. Bearing in mind that 90% of online users utilize search engines and internet searches represents 10% of the time spent by individuals on the web (McKinsey & Company for IAB Europe, 2010), it is possible for the Ferrero Company to expressly market its products to customers who are interested in chocolates in the web. This means that the company investment on advertising will pay off and lead to sales growth purely by using internet tools as it is possible to match the needs of customers, individuals, and organizations on the web requiring specific products. With the use of internet based transactions growing, one can confidently say the Ferre ro Australia online boutique store will continue to pull in more revenue for the company as people social lives and businesses continue to be more centered on internet use at home and during work. In addition to supplying its products all over Australia, the

Financial & Budgetary Management. Planning Business Performance Essay

Financial & Budgetary Management. Planning Business Performance - Essay Example A budget is a report statement of management’s plans for a specific time period expressed in financial terms (Weygant & Kieso & Kimmel, 2002, p.982). The purpose of this report is to describe the important of a budgeting function and the way it can easily implanted into a business information system. A budget is created to meet the desired timeframe a manager desires. The period of time a budget is created for is a one year accounting period, which is typically aligned with the company fiscal year or the natural year. A budget is an extremely valuable tool that provides decision makers with many advantages. Some of these advantages include; Budgeting is based on the amount of expected economic resources a firm estimates it will generate. Sales are the main source of economic incentive for companies. A budget is created in order to determine the resources need to create the target sales total. The value of a lot of business variables are determined based on expected revenue outcomes. The amount of material purchases, labor requirements, machinery upgrades, information system maintenance among other factors are determined based on an annual budget of a corporation. Budgets are associated with the responsibility centers such as cost centers, profit centers and investment centers. The return on investment of an investment center is studied based on the investment budget which allows the owner to create different profit forecast by manipulating the data from the budget of the investment project. The evaluation that takes place utilizing budgets is data that can be trust if it meets the basic performance standards: Accountability provides budgets with the credibility among professionals since it ensures the system is protected from material error. Accountability is one of many qualities that ensure the quality of the information in the budgeting system. Timeliness, authority, objectivity and accuracy are other variable that ensure quality information is

Marketing case study of Ferrero Company Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing of Ferrero Company - Case Study Example To successfully penetrate the market Ferrero maintains a limited unique number of products manufactured and marketed at the highest quality possible. The company also seeks to understand the market properly by carrying out extensive test marketing of its products to avoid embarrassing marketing failures (Australian Trade Commission, 2012). Question One Ferrero Australian opened an online boutique that sells premium chocolate gifts packed in unique keep sake gift boxes. The online boutique was actualized due to consistent demands for Ferrero chocolate gift packs by customers for their chocolate loving friends and family. The gifts are customized, elegantly packed and contain a card for personalized messages (Ferrero Boutique, 2012). Ferrero decision to open an online boutique was a well thought marketing strategy in line with the changing consumer habits in Australia. The internet has become an integral and essential feature of the day-to-day social and business lives of billions of p eople around the globe and the internet economy is growing strong each day (Bughin et al., 2011). Ferrero Australia decision enabled many of its customers to have their desired products with convenience and efficiency as the internet enables customers to save time spent on shopping for gifts. Online stores makes it possible for consumers to make quicker decisions and shop as consumers can find time to perform ten searches online but only two searches offline for each purchase, with internet searches saving more time than physical directories (Chen, Jeon & Kim 2010). This boosts productivity for consumers, suppliers and manufacturers and translates into more profits. Through its online boutique store Ferrero customers in Australia are able to choose their preferred gifts with ease and the website offers price transparency, which is essential in developing customer trust and loyalty. This is because the online boutique service offers customers a reliable and stable source of gifts all year round with more consistency, which is a crucial marketing strategy to maintain customers. Using the internet to sell its products also offers the company the opportunity to advertise its high quality products all over the world. Their website helps to raise product awareness to a much more diverse customer base that spurs its sales volume. Bearing in mind that 90% of online users utilize search engines and internet searches represents 10% of the time spent by individuals on the web (McKinsey & Company for IAB Europe, 2010), it is possible for the Ferrero Company to expressly market its products to customers who are interested in chocolates in the web. This means that the company investment on advertising will pay off and lead to sales growth purely by using internet tools as it is possible to match the needs of customers, individuals, and organizations on the web requiring specific products. With the use of internet based transactions growing, one can confidently say the Ferre ro Australia online boutique store will continue to pull in more revenue for the company as people social lives and businesses continue to be more centered on internet use at home and during work. In addition to supplying its products all over Australia, the

Outsourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Outsourcing - Essay Example se of two dramatically different effects – while some claim that it will result in layoffs and dislocation for many US workers, most economists believe that it will ultimately strengthen the US economy (Otterman, 2004). Outsourcing should not be restricted as it will be good for the US economy in the long run. With the US economy still recovering from recession, some economists feel that this is not the right time to send jobs overseas. High technology companies have been contracting out many of their software development projects to overseas software companies, particularly to India. Outsourcing has always been a part of the American economic regime. Gradually outsourcing is being done in more and more sectors. It is fueled by a combination of quality services at affordable prices both by the service providers and the consumers. The developed countries could venture into outsourcing as the developing countries have demonstrated the required skills and upgraded the technology in communications (Sourirajan, 2004). Despite claims of job losses no one really knows how many service jobs have been outsourced overseas as companies are not required to maintain such statistics. According to a Forrester Report, US will export 3.3 million US jobs by 2010 and most will be in the IT software development sector (Sourirajan, 2004). By 2015, Forrester predicts, roughly 3.3 million service jobs will have moved offshore, including 1.7 million "back office" jobs such as payroll processing and accounting, and 473,000 jobs in the information technology industry (Otterman). This according to economists is a very low figure as the United States employs some 130 million non-farm workers. Despite the recent economic downturn, according to a McKinsey Analysis, the U. S. economy created an average of 3.5 million new jobs in the private sector per year (Otterman). Outsourcing helps to stimulate the economy, argue some economists. The loss of jobs can be attributed to other factors like

Financial Business Startup Essay Example for Free

Financial Business Startup Essay A major responsibility for new Financial Advisors is to formulate and conduct marketing strategies to develop and enhance client relationships. These activities are normally documented through a marketing plan. Using this document, you are asked to answer hypothetical question – if you were to be hired as a financial advisor, what would your business plan look like? How would you get the word out that you are a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor? Who would you contact? How would you contact them? How would you tell them your story and the Merrill Lynch story? This document will help you build a preliminary business plan. Keep an open mind as you are asked to think about all the people you touch in a typical day, as well as those people you have touched in the past. These individuals can be potential clients or be a great source of introduction to others who may need your services. Good luck! Feel free to write your responses on a separate piece of paper. Section 1: Your Vision 1. What is your 3-year vision for your business? 2. What are your 3-year personal financial goals? . Please rank order the following in terms of your greatest interest/passion to least. Please describe the personal attributes you have that you believe will contribute to your success as a Financial Advisor. 5. What do you believe ML and your local Management Team can provide to you in your first 90 days in order to help you be successful? 6. Why have you chosen the Financial Services Industry? More specifically, why have you chosen ML? Section 2: Centers of Influence â€Å"Centers of Influence† are individuals in our lives who tend to be well known, well liked and very well networked. â€Å"Centers of Influence† are valuable in making introductions to people that we may be able to help as Merrill Lynch Financial Advisors. Below please record the name of ten people who are â€Å"Centers of Influence† in your life and state what groups they can connect you with.

Differences between Windows Version 1.0.2 and 1.0.3:

Differences between Windows Version 1.0.2 and 1.0.3: Windows version Changes between 1.0.2 and 1.0.3: Video outputs: * Fix video quality when resizing the video on Windows Vista and 7, due to regressions in most popular drivers * New deinterlacers modules based on yadif and yadif(x2) algorithms Decoders: * Windows version supports now natively the WMA Professional codec, as it didnt work in the packaged version of 1.0.2 * Fix downmixing of particual 4.0 AC-3 audio tracks Encoders: * x264 has profile-limitter, like: #transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{profile=baseline,level=12}..} Input: * Update for appletrailers lua script * Fixes on the RAR stream filter * Fix for E-AC3 in ATSC/TS streams * Various fixes for v4l and v4l2 * Fix a crash in mjpeg demuxer Service discovery: * New udev module for linux Qt4 interface: * Fixes on the playlist and the stream output panels Translations: * French, Galician, Korean, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Slovak and Ukrainian updates Changes between 1.0.1 and 1.0.2: Decoders: * Native support for WMA Professional, without the use of the Win32 dlls * Fix issues in subtitles, especially SSA ones * Various fixes on theora and ogg Demuxers: * Various fixes for EPG support in MPEG-TS demuxer * Fixes for potential stack overflow in .avi, .mp4 and .asf demuxers Access: * Fixes for v4l2 devices * Fixes for dvb-c channels-scanning Qt Interface: * Fix some playlist sorting issues Mac OS X Interface: * Fixed a crash when updating VLC * Fixed a crash related to QTKit when opening video files (10.6 only) * Added the ability to play 2nd media in sync to the primary item (input-slave) * Added the Quit after Playback feature Mac OS X Port: * The Delete Preferences script is now delivered as a Universal Binary with native code for PowerPC, Intel and Intel 64bit * Full 64bit runtime compatibility on both Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 no support for Goom and SDL limited text rendering support This port is still considered as EXPERIMENTAL despite its binary release. Encoders: * MPEG2 transrate stream output removed * x264 default-values closer to x264.exe defaults. * x264 rc-behaviour fixes: if user defines qp-value, CQP-mode is used otherwise if user defines vb=0, CRF-mode is used otherwise ABR-mode is used * x264 set vbv-bufsize/vbv-maxsize better if user hasnt defined these: ABR mode set vbv-max-bitrate=bitrate vbv-bufsize is bitrate * seconds between keyframes (keyint/fps) Playlist: * Lua scripts for Mpora and Vimeo playback Unix builds: * Various fixes to enable 1.0 to build on Solaris and OpenBSD Translations: * New Kazakh and Croatian translations * Lithunanian translation is available on Windows * Galician, Korean, Nepali, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Brazilian, Arabic and French translation updates Changes between 1.0.0 and 1.0.1: Demuxers: * Fix wmv/asf issues that caused audio to drop * Various fixes for ac3, mp3, dts and stability for wav format * Fix seek in RTSP in conformity to RFC 2326 * Fix Dailymotion access script * Fix crashes in xspf files handler * Fix seeking and timing issues in some flv files on Windows version Access: * Add extra caching for files on network shares * Prevent integer underflow in Real pseudo-RTSP module, discovered by tixxDZ, DZCORE Labs, Algeria Decoders: * Fix seeking in mpeg2 video files * Improve SSA subtitles rendering * Update most codecs for the Windows and Mac version Muxers: * Fix sound recording of .flv files with mp3 audio Qt Interface: * Possibility to change the opacity level of the Fullscreen controller * Fix various crashes and VIDEO_TS folders opening Mac OS X Interface: * Added options to disable support for Apple Remote and Media Keys * Fixed options for Volume, Last.fm password and Subtitle Encoding * Fixed redraw issues when autosizing the video window * Preferences panel now includes help through tool-tips * More reliable Information and Messages panels * Fix various crashes Windows port: * The ZVBI module is now available for Windows, for complete teletext support Translations updates for Brazillian, French, German, Korean, Norwegian Nynorsk, Lithuanian Changes between 0.9.9a and 0.9.10: HTTP Interface: * Fixed default ACL Mac OS X: * Fixed crashes on multi-screen setups * Corrected volume and subtitle encoding options in the Preferences * Improved Information panel behavior, when playlist is not displayed * Fixed QTCapture input support for the latest iSight models * Added a menu-item to unlock the video windows aspect ratio * Fixed redraw issues when autosizing the video window * Updated libpng, libgpg-error, libgcrypt, fribidi Various fixes to the following modules: * access: HTTP, SMB updated and additional access scripts (BBC radio, dailymotion, ) Prevent integer underflow in Real pseudo-RTSP module, discovered by tixxDZ, DZCORE Labs, Algeria * stream out: RTP, RTSP VoD, Mosaic Bridge * decoder: TSCC Changes between 0.9.9a and 1.0.0: Important notes: - * Alsa and OSS audio capture has been removed from the v4l and v4l2 accesses. See Access: for more info. * Support for Mac OS X 10.4.x was dropped due to its technical limitations Playback: * Instantaneous pausing * Frame-by-Frame playback * Finer speed control * On-the-fly recording for all medias * Timeshift for most medias * RTSP trickplay support * Subtitles core improvements and fixes Decoders: * New AES3 (SMPTE 302M) decoder * New Dolby Digital Plus E-AC-3 (A/52b) decoder * New True HD/MLP decoder and parser * New Blu-Ray Linear PCM decoder * New QCELP (Qualcomm PureVoice) decoder * Improved Real Video 3.0 4.0 decoder * New WMA v1/2 fixed point integer decoder * Closed Captions using the SCTE-20 standard are now correctly decoded * Improvement of WavPack decoder to support all integer modes and float mode * Corrections on 5.1 and 7.1 channel decoding and ordering Demuxers: * Support for Dirac, MLP and RealVideo in Matroska files * Major improvements in RealMedia files opening (.rm and .rmvb) * Improvements of the TS demuxer for M2TS files from Blu-Ray and AVCHD * Metadata for mod files are supported * GSM codecs in Wav files are supported * New raw audio demuxer supporting raw PCM streams * New Dirac demuxer for raw Dirac streams Encoders: * Dirac encoding using libdirac (supported in Ogg and in TS) * Shine mp3 fixed-point encoder Access: * RTSP authentication with Darwin Streaming Server * On-the-fly gzip and bzip2 file decompression (except on Windows) * Playback for video in uncompressed multi-RAR archives * DVB-S and ATSC cards support on Windows * New OSS and Alsa accesses. The v4l2 and v4l modules no longer support OSS or Alsa audio input. Use input-slave alsa:// or oss:// if needed. * DVB scanning on linux * EXPERIMENTAL Blu-Ray Disc and AVCHD Folders support * On-the-fly zip file decompression and browsing (MRL of the form zip://file.zip!/file.avi to specify the file the development form of zip://file.zip|file.avi is not supported anymore) * Opening of any file descriptor using fd:// * MTP device access on Unix * CD-Text support on the cdda module (CD-Audio) * :start-time and :stop-time can handle sub-second values Inputs: * Mouse cursor support in x11 and win32 screen modules * Screen module now features partial screen capture and mouse following on Windows and Mac OS X. Playlist: * Export the playlist in HTML * Lua script for BBC radio playback * Better metadata handling and reading Linux/Windows interface: * Global Hotkeys on Windows and Linux * Various fixes for skins2 interface * Recently played items list * Interface toolbar customizations * Various Improvements on the Qt interface: More menus actions Finer speed slider Improvements on many dialogs New dialog for plugins listing Fixed-size mode for videos Better Teletext, trickplay and encrypted streams control * Better integration in GTK environments Mac OS X Interface: * Controllable by the Media Keys on modern Apple keyboards (brushed Aluminium) * Reveal-in-Finder functionality for locally stored items. * Easy addition of subtitles through the Video menu * Additional usability improvements Stream output: * Restored the old mpeg2 transrating module. * Multiple bridge-in instances are now possible. * bridge-in can be used to configure a placeholder stream. * Remote Audio Output Protocol (AirTunes) module. * Fixed mosaic memleak. Mosaics are now usable again. Maemo Port: * New Maemo port with: an interface based on Hildon framework. scaler based on the swscale_nokia770 library. Windows CE Port: EXPERIMENTAL work for the winCE port has been done. Mac OS X Port: * EXPERIMENTAL 64bit support * Speed improvements by using llvm-gcc * New document icons by Dominic Spitaler * Support for latest iSight models Audio output: * Removed obsolete Esound and aRts plugins * Surround support for PulseAudio Video output: * Effects (cube, torus, etc.) removed from OpenGL video output * Video is able to stay in original size and to zoom in fullscreen (hotkey o) while keeping black borders * Image video output has been rewritten into a video-filter named scene. The old image video output has been removed. * Support for scaling and converting video chromas with FFMPEG imgresample was withdrawn due to bugs. Please use the newer FFMPEG swscale instead. Miscellaneous: * Invmem, a fake codec to display images from external applications New Localization: * Khmer * Mongolian * Sorani Changes between 0.9.9 and 0.9.9a: Mac OS X: * Updated multiple 3rd party libraries to keep in sync with the Win32 port * Playback fixes for PowerPC-based Macs Changes between 0.9.8a and 0.9.9: Decoders: * Experimental new decoder for Real Video 3.0 4.0 Demuxers: * Various fixes related to real demuxer Mac OS X Interface: * Fixed circumstances, which could lead to an empty Information panel Note that VLC will show information on the currently _selected_ item instead of the currently _playing_ item, if the playlist is visible in the main controller window. * Fixed multiple UTF8 issues in the Streaming / Exporting Wizard Mac OS X Port: * Improved video playback performance on Intel-based Macs New Localizations: * Indonesian * Bengali * Updates of other localizations Various bugfixes: * Support for receiving RTP packets on odd port numbers. * Lots of small bugfixes. * Correct Fullscreen behaviour on Multi-Screen setups on Windows * Telnet fixes on Windows * Resampling fixes when transcoding Changes between 0.9.6 and 0.9.8a: Security update: * Fixed buffer overflow in Real demuxer (SA-0811, CVE-2008-5276) Bunch of small bugfixes. Changes between 0.9.5 and 0.9.6: New Localizations: * Ukranian Security updates: * Fixed overflow in CUE support from VCD access (SA-0810, CVE-2008-5032) * Fixed overflow in RealText subtitles support (SA-0810, CVE-2008-5036) Changes between 0.9.4 and 0.9.5: Security updates: * Fixed buffer overflow in TiVo demuxer (SA-0809, CVE-2008-4686, CVE-2008-4654) * Fixed libpng CVE-2008-3964 in Win32 and MacOS builds Features: * Closed Caption EIA 608/708 parsing enabled for libmpeg2 Various bugfixes: * Fixed various potential crashes and memleaks * Fixed issues with reading from files (especially non-local) Windows port: * Fix bug where interface was eating some media keys * Fix some crashes in DirectShow access Qt Interface: * Fix bug when the resetting of preferences didnt reset the dialog states * Right-click menu to select playlist columns reenabled * Various fixed in playlist Access: * MMAP module is now deactivated by default Translations: * Update of Brazillian, Swedish translation Changes between 0.9.3 and 0.9.4: Various bugfixes: * Crashes fixed in ogg, vobsub, dvdread * Fixes several memory leaks. Mac OS X port: * Apple machines without Quartz Extreme are no longer supported (use 0.9.2 or earlier ) * Fixed a crash with deletion of old preferences. * Fixed targetname for downloaded updates Windows port: * Stability fix for the video output. Changes between 0.9.2 and 0.9.3: Various bugfixes: * Fixed DTS channel order on 5.1 systems * Fixed pausing behavior for subtitles and for Audio-CD * Multiple subtitles and podcast fixes * Various crashes fixed in PS, SSA, mkv, xspf, freetype * Fixed update system bugs * Other bug fixes (dvd language selection, subtitle colours, HTTP keep-alive+) Mac OS X port: * Fixed ffmpeg slowness on PowerPC-based Macs * Fixed crash on startup when installed on old preferences * Fixed bug in directory opening on Mac OS X * Fixed font selection in the Simple Preferences * Thicker border to the subtitle renderer * Fixed the appearance of playlist items in the Streaming/Transcoding Wizard * Fixed AC3 passthrough on Mac OS X * Fixed behavior of the Volume Normalizer settings on Mac OS X * Removed the deprecated QuickDraw video output module to avoid crashes on modern Mac OS X versions Windows port: * Fixed sensitivity of Fullscreen Controller * Fixed error messages on startup when VLC wasnt correctly uninstalled before installation * Fix showing of controller when returning from fullscreen playback * Multiple directory and path location fixes. Qt4 interface: * Added Faster/Slower icons to the controller panel * Fixed lost playlist columns when switching the playlist view * Added needed options to Simple preferences (to avoid NVIDIA drivers issues) * Fullscreen controller: added time label, remembering of last position * Fixed dragn drop behaviour on the playlist * Multiple other fixes (Enter hotkey in preferences, Skins selection) Changes between 0.9.1 and 0.9.2: * Restored the old behavior of sout-keep. It is now de-activated by default. * Skins2 interface repaired on Windows. * Multiple bugfixes. Changes between 0.9.1 and 0.9.0: * Multiple bug fixes. Changes between 0.8.6i and 0.9.0: Important notes: - * This release will need Windows 2000 and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), or more recent to work correctly * The HTTP interface is now only available on the local machine by default. If you want to make it available from other machines, you will have to edit the .hosts file. On UNIX/Linux, the file is in /usr/share/vlc/http/.hosts If youre using the old http interface, its located in /usr/share/vlc/http/old/.hosts On Windows they are in C:Program FilesVideoLANVLChttp.hosts and C:Program FilesVideoLANVLChttpold.hosts On Mac OS X, you can find it in VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/http/.hosts and respectively in VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/http/old/.hosts * This version of VLC contains a new interface for Windows and Linux. This interface has a fullscreen controller and simplified preferences. This interface lacks the Streaming Wizard that used to be present in VLC 0.8.6, but provides basic profiles. * The behavior of sout-keep was changed. Its now activated by default. * The marq, mosaic and logo commands in the rc interface changed. They now require a target name as their first argument. Example: vlc sub-filter [emailprotected]{marquee=Hello} -I rc You can then use commands like: @test marq-marquee Goodbye If you didnt name the object using @test, its name will default to the plugin name (hence marq) in this example. These new commands are also available in the telnet interface. * The rtp access output module has been removed. Please use the RTP stream output instead, e.g.: Old: #std{access=rtp,mux=ts,dst=239.255.1.2:5004,sap} New: #rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.1.2,port=5004,sap} * You now need to append m3u-extvlcopt to your command line to enable EXTVLCOPT options parsing in m3u playlists. Note that only a limited set of options is available to m3u playlists (CVE-2007-6683). * The old access:url syntax is no longer supported to resolve ambiguities with some file names. Use access://url instead. E.g.: vlc:quit -> vlc://quit ; udp:@239.255.12.12 -> udp://@239.255.12.12 * The ffmpeg module has been removed and replaced by the new avcodec, avformat, swscale (or imgresample if you use a swscale-less ffmpeg build) and postproc modules. * The web plugins ActiveX (IE)/Firefox/Mozilla/Safari now recognize the following states: IDLE/CLOSE=0, OPENING=1, BUFFERING=2, PLAYING=3, PAUSED=4, STOPPING=5, FORWARD=6, BACKWARD=7, ENDED=8, ERROR=9. With FORWARD and BACKWARD being reserved for future implementations and are thus not functional atm. * Croping and padding in transcode are now done using the croppadd video filter. For example: transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vfilter=croppadd{cropttop=20,cropbottom=30,paddleft=100}} * Canvas setting in transcode is now done using the canvas video filter. For example: transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vfilter=canvas{width=640,height=480}} * Glide video output module has been removed. Changes: Security updates: * Updated libfreetype on Windows and Mac OS X (CVE-2008-1806, CVE-2008-1806, CVE-2008-1807) * TTA Parser improvements (CVE-2008-3732) * MMS Access Module improvements (CVE-2008-3794 ) Playlist: * Vastly improved playlist support: * Media library creation to save all your playlist items * Live search * Shoutcast TV listings * Audioscrobbler/Last.FM support * Album art support * User definable Lua playlist scripts. See share/lua/playlist/README.txt (Default scripts open YouTube, DailyMotion, metacafe, Google Video and lots of other URLs) * User definable Lua album art fetcher scripts. See share/lua/meta/README.txt Inputs: * Video for Linux 2 (V4L2) input support * UDP-Lite transport for RTP/AVP * DCCP transport for RTP/AVP * Proxy support for MMSH stream * JACK audio input support * Input run time option (improved live stream recording) * BDA devices access module for DVB-C/S/T capture cards on Microsoft Windows * Re-written Screen access module for Mac OS X using OpenGL instead of QuickDraw * Screen module now supports partial screen capture and mouse following on X11. * Experimental EyeTV access module This requires the user to install a plugin to EyeTV.app (available as a separate download). * Simple RTP input (with MPEG A/V, G.711 and PCM support). * RTMP input support * QTKit-based Input module for Mac OS X allowing display and streaming of video taken from all iSight-labelled video cameras (no audio support) * HTTP access now supports gzip compressed data and Digest Access Authentication. * New options to reduce latency between arrival of raw data and display of frames. (auto-adjust-pts-delay and use-stream-immediate) Demuxers: * MP4 gpac and Apple chapter support * Fixed playback of AIFF stereo files * Fixed audio glitch on seek * Improved FLAC demuxer (duration / current time / meta data) * AAC tags support * APEv1/2 tags support * Improved ID3v2 tags support * Improved Ogg/Vorbis tags support * Raw video support * Standard MIDI File (types 0 1) support * TiVo Series 2 support * CD+G karaoke Files support * MXF files support * OMA support Decoders: * VP60/VP61/VP6F/VP62 support * Flash Screen Video support * CamStudio Screen Video support * DosBox Capture support * Karl Mortons Video support * limited atrac3 support * Fraps support * Fluidsynth MIDI software synthesis (with external sound fonts) * New codec FOURCCs to support more specific files: Avid, FCP, Sony, Samsung, * H.264 PAFF support * DNxHD / VC-3 support * NellyMoser ASAO support * APE (Monkey audio) support * RealVideo support (with the RealVideo run-time) * Dirac video support using libschroedinger Subtitles: * Closed Caption Decoder (DVD, ReplayTV, TiVo, DVB/ATSC) * VBI EBU (Teletext) support (*nix, Mac OS) * Ogg/Kate subtitles support * AQTitle subtitles support * MKV USF subtitles support * HTML-based subtitles support * MPSub subtitles support * JacoSub subtitles basic support * MPL2 subtitles support * Rewrite of ASS/SSA scripts and subtitles support * PowerDivx (.psb) Subtitles support * Realtext subtitle support * DKS subtitle support * SubViewer 1.0 (SubRip09) subtitles support * Correct Right-to-left languages in subtitles support Encoders: * Flash Screen Video support * Improved H.264 encoding speed Video outputs and filters: * New CoreAnimation-based output module (VLCKit framework on OS X only) * Adjust, Invert and Distort (now split into Wave, Ripple, Gradient and Psychedelic) video filters can now be streamed * New puzzle video output filter * Re-written motion detection video filter * New extract video filter (extract Red, Green and Blue components from a video) * New sharpen video filter (increase the contrast of adjacent pixels) * New erase video filter (removes logos from a video) * Enhanced subtitles renderer to support bold, italic and some HTML tags (Google Summer of Code Student project) * Support for RGBA and I420 blending. The latter improves Mosaic CPU usage *a lot*. * New transparency mask video filter (for use with the mosaic_bridge module). * New bluescreen video filter (for use with the mosaic_bridge module). This was previously part of the mosaic module. * Fixed random characters problem in RSS filter. * Add rotate-deciangle for more precision on rotate filter * Support for Intel SSE2 instruction set in chroma converters * Improved use of Intel MMX instruction set in chroma converters * New croppadd and canvas video filters. Audio outputs and filters: * Replay gain support * Audio playback when going slower/faster (with pitch correction via new scaletempo audio filter) * New spatializer audio filter * Correct DTS output via S/PDIF Stream output: * RTSP for TS-multiplexed broadcast streams * New RTP payload formats: * Speex voice audio codec * ITU T.140 (for text, subtitles) output * G.711 (both A-law and  µ-law) output * UDP-Lite transport for RTP * DCCP transport for RTP * Lots of fixes for RTSP broadcasting * RTMP output Interfaces: * All * New Simple Preferences dialogs showing the most important settings in an end-user suitable way. * Improved user interaction * Improved mouse gestures * Vastly improved Update checker * Full support for meta data editing (ID3v2, Ogg/Vorbis, AAC, APEv1/2) * Windows/Linux * Brand new interface for Linux and Windows, based on the Qt toolkit * Fullscreen controller (transparency on Linux+Composite) * Mac OS X * Improved video output features * Online access to VideoLANs Help Wiki within VLC * New setting to disable the Recent Items service * When playing Radio (live) streams, the current track is shown correctly * Correct appearance on Macs using Aquas graphite theme * Simplified Extended Controls panel * Ncurses: * Correctly displays wide characters when using an UTF-8 locale, if libncursesw is available. * Some nice colors if the terminal supports it (most do) * Experimental Lua interface modules. See vlc -I lua and share/lua/playlist/README.txt for more info. * Unix * Option to allow only one running instance, using D-Bus interface. * D-Bus Interface implementing the MPRIS (Media Player Remote Interfacing specification), a common dbus control interface for media players that intends to become an xdg standard when finished: http://wiki.xmms2.xmms.se/index.php/Media_Player_Interfaces . * Motion module using disk accelerometers to keep video horizontal * Plugin to set Telepathy presence message using MissionControl * Fixed VLM schedule time on Linux Linux Port: * VLC now complies with the XDG Base Directory Specification version 0.6 http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.6.html (which means that VLC doesnt use the $HOME/.vlc directory anymore) Mac OS X Port: * Mac OS X Framework VLCKit that can be used to embed VLC in third party applications (Google Summer of Code Student project, Mac OS X 10.5 only) * New text renderer based on Quartz replacing the existing Freetype solution * Complete compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard * It is now required to compile a fully featured build * The support of Mac OS X 10.3.9 and QuickTime 6.x was discontinued. LibVLC: * Event management and various improvements in libvlc (Part of a Google Summer of Code Student project) New Localizations: * Finnish * Persian * Polish * Punjabi * Bulgarian Developers: * LibVLC now supports externally built plugins properly. A vlc-plugin pkg-config package is provided. * Java bindings are now built from a separate source. Changes between 0.8.6h and 0.8.6i: - Security updates: * Fixed integer overflow in WAV demuxer (CVE-2008-2430) Various bugfixes: * Fixed option to use shared memory within the GLX video output module * Improved galaktos-based audio visualizations on FreeBSD * Miscellaneous bugfixes in multiple modules and in libvlc (transcode stream output, OSD menu video filter, VCD input, SAP services discovery, http control interface) * Updated Polish translation Changes between 0.8.6g and 0.8.6h: - Security updates: * Updated GnuTLS and libgcrypt on Windows and Mac OS X (CVE-2008-1948, CVE-2008-1949, CVE-2008-1950) * Updated libxml2 on Windows and Mac OS X (CVE-2007-6284) Goodies: * Updated libebml and libmatroska on Mac OS X. Reliability improvements. * Miscellaneous bugfixes in multiple modules and in libvlc (ftp access, record access filter, video filters, RC interface, playlist demuxer, IP networking, MPJPEG muxer, stream outputs) * Improved support for MPEG2 content created by Final Cut Pro * More reliable audio reception for MPEG TS streams * Fixed a regression in 0.8.6g where usage of the snapshot feature could lead to an unexpected application termination * New Serbian translation * Updated Romanian translation Changes between 0.8.6f and 0.8.6g: - Security updates: * Removed VLC variable settings from Mozilla and ActiveX (CVE-2007-6683, VideoLAN-SA-0804) * Removed loading plugins from the current directory (CVE-2008-2147, VideoLAN-SA-0805) * Updated libpng on Windows and Mac OS X (CVE-2008-1382) * Fixed libid3tag denial of service (CVE-2008-2109) * Fixed libvorbis vulnerabilities (CVE-2008-1419, CVE-2008-1420, CVE-2008-1423) * Fixed speex insufficient boundary check (CVE-2008-1686, oCERT-2008-004) Various bugfixes: * Fixed various memory leaks, improving stability when running as a server * Fixed compilation with recent versions of FFmpeg * Correctly parses SAP announcements from MPEG-TS * Fixed AAC resampling * The Fullscreen Controller appears correctly on Mac OS X, if the Always-on-top video option was selected. Changes between 0.8.6e and 0.8.6f: - Security updates: * Really fixed subtitle buffer overflow (CVE-2007-6681, CVE-2008-1881) * Fixed Real RTSP code execution problem (CVE-2008-